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Tag Archives: Poets

INKSPILL 2017 Coming Soon Celebrate Our 5th Year

Book yourself some time off and treat yourself to a FREE online writing retreat this Autumn. Join us in real time, or wander around the posts at your leisure.
Easy links to previous years will also be available.

Guest Writer

Charlie Jordan –

Thoughts on Writing and Editing (Part 2)

Balance? No idea – just squish bits of writing in whenever you can, and accept that life sometimes gets so busy with work and family responsibilities, that you may not always have space…….that’s ok too – sometimes the only hour you get free needs to be spent walking in the park and clearing your head.

Don’t get too Ivory Tower about your writing, we all have images of sitting in a particular location, with elegant stationery or a Macbook and endless hours to focus on our craft – but the reality may be scribbling on a train in rush hour, or when waiting to collect the kids on the school run – hoping they’re running a few minutes late today, so you can finish a piece. 😉 Sometimes it’s just a few brief notes or thoughts for working on another time, and that’s ok.

I love the books by Natalie Goldberg on writing, and she writes about Zen practise too – so as someone who’s dabbled with Buddhism for 30 yrs, I can re-read her books and still savour new nuances.

Others rave about Stephen King’s book on writing, or Julia Cameron – read widely and see what works for you, but don’t allow too much reading about writing equate to never actually doing any writing! It’s a fine balance…. I read Buddhist books, Pema Chodron & Thich Nhat Hanh are among my favourites, food books, authors like Elizabeth Gilbert – who have such a clear voice I can hear them speaking from the page, and of course – poetry……from early favourites like Maya Angelou – who wrote and spoke as a 6 foot woman, like me – and I didn’t know any other tall women then, so I felt like she understood!

Benjamin Zephaniah, as a Brummy and hugely charismatic poet and writer who is equally at home writing for children or engaging in more serious political poetry, sometimes combining both in his young adult novels, Sharon Olds – whose work Jo Bell introduced me to – which reminds me – you should look up Jo Bell.

Now! She’s a powerhouse of poetic life force, fiercely talented and a warm, friendly mischievous woman whose love of poetry and boating meets perfectly in her currently being our canal Laureate. She instigated 52 – a brilliant initiative online for weekly poetry prompts and sharing of new work – hopefully in a book for next year so we can all catch up on it. Lemn Sissay too – outstanding energy on the page and off the page and sometimes inscribed into walls – Google him now & look….. So many other names, too many to mention – but poets like Jaqui Rowe, Angela France, Helen Ivory are worth your time and generally dip into collections of poetry like a ‘pick & mix’ to stumble on new favourites. Performance poets to recommend include Hollie McNish, Bohdan Piasecki, Kate Tempest, Matt Windle, Spoz, Maggie Doyle – several of whom are friends, but of course I’m not biased – they’re outstanding poets too.

Connect with other writers when you can, it’s such an isolating process – so writing groups, open mics, writing courses and literary festivals – go and find your tribe as it were! I’ve found the West Midlands to be full of some hugely talented writers, who are also encouraging and supportive people who welcome new poets and want to build up their confidence.

One thing that makes me sad is when a writer spends time and energy criticising another writer’s work. This may be amusing with the big name million selling, prize winning stars parry in the broad sheets to get the headlines for their new bestseller…..but for the rest of us in the real world – be kinder! Don’t waste your finite words, and energy in negativity and try to divide the already small community of writers and artists and claim some work is superior to others. Of course we’re not all going to love every word or genre written, but why denigrate someone’s hard work and sneer – instead why not tell us whose work you love?

Share what sets you alight with inspiration and we too may indulge in the excitement of discovering new favourite writers.

Update things. This is as much for me as you……I’ve been presenting the Drivetime show at Smooth radio in the West Midlands since March, but haven’t updated my website this year….ooooops! My friend Dave does all the technical stuff for it, but I’ve not sent him any new copy for months – so, note to self – update it……… Nina’s much better at this

On Editing

Editing – try actually chopping a piece up. Literally with scissors and physically swap words or lines around in a poem…..sometimes it frees things up in a way you’d never discover on a computer screen. And you get to play with blue tack or sellotape – always fun!

This is just a few rambling thoughts scribbled extremely quickly, so to wrap up I should say something really profound and meaningful and well thought out – like I was planning this destination all along…..erm…..oooopssssss…..oh wait, yes – that’s it….. Feel free to ignore/discard/forget every word of this or anything else……… different things will work for us all at different times. There is no one definitive answer, but by reading widely and dipping into and out of things, you’ll be likely to discover something you do like, that fits right now.

So Good luck, go write and enjoy.

Oh and one more thing, try writing with your friends – I did it with Divas, and we’ve had the best fun and once our diaries are all link up, we’ll be doing it again and having the best writing and performing fun ever, and tea, cake & mischievous giggles!

Last year I discovered a phenomenal weekend retreat that took place in the USA at the end of October – it was pricey even without the added airfare – so I decided to create an annual event of our own… something to build on each year.

INKSPILL was born!

One day you may even have to pay but for now it is FREEand just for fun. That is not to say I haven’t improved the programme from last year…. because I have – firstly I have other artists/ writers involved.

Last year I opened requests up to followers of my blog – so now *IT IS OVER TO YOU!*

What do you want to learn about writing?

Which elements are weaker, where could you use a little support?

What have you always wanted to know (but been too afraid to ask)?

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE FOR SOME TAILOR MADE SUPPORT

Some of last year’s retreat posts are the most popular posts hit on this site each month and some have even been linked on academic websites.

We will run the retreat over 2 days – you can join in real time GMT – or dip in and out as you wish. The posts will be pinned for the weekend and then available through using INKSPILL in the tag search.

INKSPILL – NOT THIS WEEKEND, BUT THE WEEKEND AFTER! 25TH & 26TH OCTOBER – WITH

NINA LEWIS

WILLIAM GALLAGHER

CHARLIE JORDAN

HEATHER WASTIE

I will posts their BIOs later in the week.

FOR NOW LEAVE A MESSAGE ON THIS THREAD – WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT?

I have been going to Spoken Word at The Ort since the tail end of last year, it was always on a Thursday and the first 3 months of 2014 the dates clashed with one or two other events in the city, numbers dropped.

This month was the first FRIDAY (now a regular slot) and it was PACKED! Only half the audience had chairs. I haven’t seen it that busy for a long time. It was great! There were probably an equal amount of audience to performers, which is fantastic.

As I walked in I was actually recognised by somebody who had seen me perform in Worcester, it was good chatting to them. There were lots of familiar faces and some from other events who I have never seen go to The Ort.

There has always been a mix of acts; musicians, comedians, poets, storytellers.

This evening we were treated to 3 bands – who Debbie, has quite rightly invited back to do a whole evening sometime soon. There were Burlesque/ Band singing, Swingerella (a friend of mine, Andrea Shorrick) has a persona and performs her love torn poetry through Swingerella and a case of props, she has branched out into comedy and performs regularly at a Burlesque night herself. She told me on Thursday that she has created other characters, the Steve Coogan of the Poetry/Comedy world! A female version of course, there were some great spoken word/ poets and a couple who had never performed live before!

The atmosphere as always was electrifying and yet relaxed, I love performing at the Ort. I tried to perform using my new mobile phone tech. it let me down half way through the set and I reverted to page copy. I had some positive feedback and really enjoyed the set.

After Friday the 13th I deserve today! I didn’t get the job, but had some positive feedback from interview.

Today ALL that can be forgotten for the weekend, the work will come in the end. I have more agencies to do business with next week. And it DOES mean that I get to go to the Poetry Workshop in October, which I really think I am supposed to attend, even more so now the work fell through.

My old home town have there annual festival this weekend and this evening there is a book launch. A local poet – I will cover it more tomorrow after the event. There are also readings from other poet’s including my friend Maggie Doyle, who was the poet laureate for the city last year. We met on the children’s book writing course this summer.

Since the event was first held in 2006 the event has grown bigger every year, becoming a major showcase for the town, its businesses and community. Favourite attractions, including the Roman re-enactors, canal boat trips, and street markets and stalls, will be returning at this year’s festival.

The Arts Network is fully supporting the event and has organised a number of attractions. There is a book launch at the Parks Café from 7pm on the Saturday, which will feature guest poets.

Relax with a glass of wine and listen to local poet Sarah James, who will be launching her new collection of poems ‘Be[yond]’. The evening will feature special guests.

Photographs used with kind permission from Paul at Parks café

Origins of the festival

Salt Day started in 2006 to celebrate the town’s unique salt heritage. Since then the event has grown considerably taking place across the whole town centre and attracting thousands of visitors. Whilst the salt heritage and Romans are still important aspects, the event has now become a showcase for the town, businesses and community. Many local groups take part running stalls and organising activities whilst the music showcase features young and up and coming local performers. In 2012 Salt Day became Salt Fest when, for the first time, the event took place over a whole weekend.